Quirkless

Those Two Are Literally the Worst

It was 48 hours before the gala, and Q was getting the usual pre-mission nerves. She knew better than to put much stock in plans - they never survived the field - but the rushed nature of their prep still put her teeth on edge. It was further hampered by the fact that their operation wasn't sanctioned by the Commission. It wasn't not sanctioned, either, but they would be on their own.

She had Carter and Shinsou in the kitchen, pouring over the blueprints of the hall while she walked Midoriya through making a curry. The hero had taken some interest in cooking in the last week, if only because Q had started to refuse to make him katsudon, and she was trying to encourage it.

"I've never seen this side of you, Izuku," said Shinsou, "It's kind of cute." Midoriya blushed next to her. "You didn't even cook in the dorms."

"I was always busy training," he said. "Plus Ochako or Kacchan would always cook for me."

"I didn't know you two knew each other in school." Q turned the heat down on the pan before Midoriya seared the vegetables beyond rescue and added the sauce.

"Yeah, I almost beat him at the sports festival once, first year." Shinsou marked something on the blueprints. "He was the first person to break out of my quirk."

"Wow, that's impressive." Q said, looking at Midoriya with new found respect. "I tried once, couldn't do it."

"Yeah," Carter said, laughing slightly, "he had her speaking in a British accent for almost a full day."

"It was pretty hard," Midoriya mumbled, "I had to break two of my fingers to do it."

"That sounds like Asuka when we were in training and she dislocated her shoulder just to prove the teacher wrong." Carter paused. "Wait, first year...doesn't that mean that you were like eighteen?"

"Japanese start high school at fifteen," Midoriya corrected him.

Q saw a familiar flash of fury in Carter's eyes at the words. "I'm sorry, y'all were fighting with quirks in high school?" Carter set his pen down and steepled his fingers, looking between the three of them.

"Usually only the hero courses," shrugged Shinsou. "And they always had someone with a healing quirk on hand."

Carter caught Q in his glare. "So that sports festival you showed me, that was high school kids." She nodded. It was a fact she may have purposefully 'forgotten' at the time. It was a disagreement she and her fellow agent had had often - Carter was fiercely against children being trained as heroes.

He popped his tongue in a cross between disdain and incredulity. "Kind of sounds like child abuse, but okay." Carter went back to the map. "No wonder everyone here is fucking traumatized."

"Yeah, the US is so good with children," Shinsou shot back.

Carter glared at him. "Just because everyone is doing it, doesn't mean it's right. Kids being trained to be weapons is just wrong." He glared at each of them in turn, as if daring someone to correct him.

There was silence in the room for a second until Q realized both she and Midoriya had left the stove unattended. She used the distraction to shift back to the matter at hand.

"Anyway," she said, quickly removing the pan from the heat before it bubbled over. "How are we doing on securing the exits?"

"We can't secure them, per se." Shinsou started, "We don't have the forces to guard them and blocking them off will be a fire hazard. However," he circled an exit into an alleyway. "I think if they know the building, this would be the most likely spot for them to try to get out."